How can I get good PDF output from LaTeX?

If you're trying to generate a pdf file from a .tex file, the ideal method is to use pdflatex on your .tex file:

joeuser@athena:~$ pdflatex filename.tex

This will use postscript versions of the Computer Modern fonts, so that the text looks good at various resolutions. This also skips the DVI and Postscript step, so you don't have to generate a .dvi file at all.

If your latex file includes postscript files (such as in figures), then pdflatex will not be able to generate a proper pdf file. In this case you have two options: You can convert your Postscript graphics to PDF graphics, or you can use dvips and convert the output to PDF.

Ugly PDF outputIf you try to convert Postscript generated by the normal "dvips -o" command to PDF, everything will look very pixelated and ugly on the screen, even though a printed copy will look fine. This is because dvips, by default, uses an assortment of bitmapped fonts. The procedure described below will generate the correct output.

In order to get nicer-looking PDF output, you can use Type 1 Postscript fonts instead of the standard bitmap fonts, by doing the following: